Biriyani is a kind of dish that is believed to be very hard making it but it is a very tempting dish at the same time. Once you get the hang of it then you would like to make this very often. It is a very popular Indian dish made of several spices. All the spices are cooked in a covered pot makes the dish more delicious and aromatic. This can be made with any depth pot or rice cooker. I prefer to make with a rice cooker. If you are cooking in a pot than it has to be sealed with dough made of wheat around, so the air doesn’t get out. So let’s start making biriyani!

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Prep time: 20 min
Cook time:50 min
Total time: 1 hr 10 min
Serving size: 4

Ingredients:
Basmati rice:2 cup
Chicken with bones: 2 Lb
Ginger/garlic paste: 2 tsp
Green cardamom:10
Black cardamom: 4
Paprika: 1/2 tsp
Cloves:6
Black whole Pepper: 1 tsp
Star anise:4
fried onion:1/2 cup
Fried cashewnut: 1/4 cup
Saffron: 1/2 tsp

Whole milk:2 tbsp
Fried Golden yellow raisin: 1/4 cup
Shaan sindhi biryani masala: 2 tsp

For Raita:
Fresh cucumber chopped: 2
Salt:1/4 tsp
Non-fat Yogurt:1cup
Mustard seeds:1/4 tsp
Chopped garlic:1/4 tsp

Instructions:

1. Cut chicken into medium size, clean properly and marinate with 1/2 tsp of salt,1 tsp of ginger-garlic paste, yogurt, Olive oil and paprika in a medium-size bowl. Keep the mixture in the refrigerator for about 30 minutes. You can marinate the chicken overnight if you have enough time. The secret of getting a juicy and soft chicken depends on the time of marination. The longer the time of marination the softer the chicken.
2. Soak rice in a medium bowl for 5 to 10 minutes. Boil 6 cups of water in a saucepan and add salt, one tbsp olive oil to it and add all
   the spices(Cardamom, Clove, Star anise, Bay leaves, whole black pepper). Add the soaked rice to the boiling water and cook for 5 to
   7 minutes till the rice is 1/2 cooked, which means it should be hard if you press. Drain the excess water in a colander and set aside. In a
   separate pan fry onion, cashew and raisin.
3. In a medium saucepan add two tsp of olive oil and one tsp of sugar to caramelize. Add chopped onion and fry for 2 minutes. Add ginger-garlic paste, coriander powder, cumin powder, chili powder, salt and biriyani masala to the pan. Fry the spices for 5 minutes till the raw smell goes completely and add the chicken to the pan and cook for about 5 minutes. Chicken should not be fully cooked at this time because we will cook chicken again while making the dum biriyani. Soak saffron in 2 tbsp of milk in a bowl.
4. Grease 1 tsp of oil in the rice cooker or any pot you want but it should have a heavy cover. Place the chicken in the pan and the rice alternatively. Add the fried golden onions and cashew, raisin and the saffron milk. If you are cooking on a pot then cover the lid with wheat dough and cook on a low heat for about 10-20 minutes. It won’t take much time as rice and chicken are half cooked. Let it cool.
5. Add salt and yogurt in a medium bowl. On a small saucepan add one tsp of olive oil, mustard seeds and garlic for tampering. Stir till
   the garlic is golden brown. Add the mustard mixture to the yogurt and finally cucumber. Raita is a must-have with any biryani dish. Biryani is a bit spicy and it tastes great with yogurt-based raita to minimize the spicy effect. Serve biryani with raita and Enjoy!